Wood Carving

Wood Carving

An introduction to the fundamentals of wood carving including tools, techniques and the art. Woodworking carving can be enjoyed at many levels, from whittling a stick with a pocket knife to carving a sculpture in a fully equipped shop with chisels and power tools.

If your thinking about wood carving as a hobby you have a lot of directions in which to choose. Wood carving can be something simple like whittling for complex like carving some intricate “in the round”. Wood carving can be a hobby onto itself, or a way to enhance you other woodwork pieces.

Wood carving can be done with just a few tools for the beginner, or a whole room full for an artisan. Depending on the type or types or carving you want to make will determine the tools you will need to collect. Have the right tools available, and the right accessories on hand will make wood carving a more enjoyable hobby.

Wood carving involves various techniques of removing wood from an original raw piece, and then finishing the carved object. This involve traditional carving tools, chisels, gouges, knifes, hammers, along with sanding, painting, or otherwise finishing your object. A wood carver must be able to adapt a number of basic wood carving techniques and
skills to finish a project from beginning to end.

There are a variety of carving woods and a variety of carving method. Knowing which use to, and know which method of carving while all you to efficiently complete are project you have in mind. Different method help introduce carving to various new carver as they explore what is right for them.

As your wood carving skills advance you will be able to expand the scope of what you can accomplish will those skills. The are a variety of materials, methods, and accessories that you can use to increase you carving horizons.

Wood carving (xyloglyphy) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object. The phrase also refers to the finished product, from individual sculptures, to hand-worked moldings composing part of a tracery. Some of the finest examples of early wood carving are from the Middle Ages in Italy and France, where the typical themes of that era were of Christian iconography. In England many complete examples remain from both the 16th and 17th century, where oak was the preferred medium. Figural carving seems to have been widespread, the carving to represent a god in a tangible form finds expression in a number of ways. Early carvers found a difficulty in giving expression to the eye, and at times has evaded it by inlaying this feature with colored material.